With the local Japanese public largely against hosting the Tokyo Games amid the COVID-19 pandemic, giving Olympic and Paralympic athletes vaccination priority is expectedly drawing flak as perceived preferential treatment.
Paris-born, Japan-raised men's handball team captain Remi Anri Doi was one of those who decided to be inoculated -- but only reached that conclusion after much anguish.
"At first I was going to refuse," the 31-year-old said on the vaccination offered free to all games participants worldwide by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., with each athlete having a choice whether to undergo inoculation.